HistoricaLeigh - Leigh's War Memorial

November 24, 2015 by Carole Mulroney

Leigh's War Memorial

In these years of remembrance of those who died in the Great War people do sometimes ask 'where is our war memorial'.  It is true we don't have the conventional war memorial in Leigh but we do have a memorial which is just as poignant, for if you walk through St Clement's churchyard you will find the Calvary which is dedicated to our war dead.

Before the war and the need for such memorials there was a group of people in the country called the Kensits. John Kensit was the founder of the Protestant Truth Society in the late 1800s and their connection to Leigh relates to their position of being against what they referred to as ritualism in the Church of England. John Kensit had  died in 1902 but the work was carried on by his wife and son who came to speak in Leigh in February 1904.

Mr Kensit junior said they didn't mind 'being called 'cranks' because a crank was not the least important part of an engine.  His father had not interfered with divine worship but he had stepped in and stopped idolatry. God's truth in His own good time would prevail.  From the ashes of John Kensit ten thousand John Kensits would arise. The tide must turn.'   

At the end of the Great War Leigh's decision to erect a life sized crucifix in the churchyard to honour the Town’s fallen attracted the ‘Kensits’ to Leigh once again and on Sunday, 6 April 1919 several hundred  people attended a meeting in the churchyard to hear them speak.  The press report does not say there was any trouble but on the advice of the police the meeting was closed.

This article is by Carole Mulroney, founder of Leigh Lives. For more social and family history on the town that we love, please visit http://www.leigh-on-sea.com/leigh-lives-leigh-on-sea.html